UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I must really be bad at life today, because I couldn't even find a search option on the forums before asking for help, so I apologize if this is already listed somewhere.

I'm pretty new to UNIX, and basically only know enough to be dangerous. I have been appointed a task to basically go to a directory, find all files that begin with a certain phrase (smith, jones, etc.) and then delete all files that are older than 90 days. Any files within the last 90 days need to be compressed into a TAR file and then archived and moved to another folder.

The problem i'm having is twofold. One, I can't figure out how to get a good listing of all files older than 90 days using the search criteria of the filename (all files starting with jones over the last 90 days). I don't even know if I need this, but I thought it was a good start. I need to delete all these files > 90 days with the certain filename delimiters regardless. I've tried find, but can't figure out the switches, and I can find all the files with the name i'm looking for using ls -lrt | grep jones but that isn't doing me much good. I've searched Google for examples but haven't had any luck yet and am trying hard not to get fired, so I figured posting might be a faster solution.

Once I get those deleted, I need to then archive the files within the last 90 days into a tar and then move that file (or files?) into another directory.

If anyone can help, i'd appreciate it. Much thanks.

Wow, I now see search functions for the forum. I guess they weren't showing up when I was registered but not activated. I suck at the internets today, I swear.

you really need to look at find man page

you should be able to find file with

Code:

find /path -name "smith*"

you are able to execute any command with -exec flag to find :

Code:

find /path -name "smith*" -exec rm -r {} \;

To find files older than 90 days you can have a look at -mtime, -ctime and -atime

Code:

find /path -name "smith*" -mtime +90 -exec rm -r {} \;

Sorry, I don't have more time for this right now .... if you need precision after looking at find man page, post back here.

You should also read about regexp (man regexp) so you can find the right expression to put in -name "expression"